


Eyes in the Dark

by Idonquixote



Category: Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Movies), War of the Planet of the Apes (2017)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Injury, Foe Yay, Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Red really really hates Caesar, Well there is some tiny tiny maybe bits of comfort, but it's mostly just lots of hurt, this should have been written in whumptober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-25 21:46:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16668901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idonquixote/pseuds/Idonquixote
Summary: "Only I can hurt you. Are we clear, Kong?"In which Caesar takes a beating. And the Colonel is not happy.





	Eyes in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Squickqueen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squickqueen/gifts).



> I finally wrote something for this horrible ship! Wanted to for a long time, but finally managed to get something out. I'm dedicating this to the lovely Squickqueen for always being such a lovely fellow fan and friend, and for being the captain of this terrible ship's boat!

Caesar tasted snow. Bitter ice and the iron tang of blood. It was everywhere, in his mouth, in his breath, under his brow. In his head. And as he lay in that heap, he remembered grass and sun. And-

_"I told you not to go so fast!"_

_Will scooped him into his arms, which had been so big back then, and whimpering, the little chimp shook his head. The man sighed and grabbed his hand, not rough, but firm. Will rubbed fingers over the wooden splinters in his palm. Caesar grunted, discontent._

_"Does it hurt?" Will asked, the anger in his eyes slipping into light concern._

_Yes. Caesar nodded. He nestled into Will's grip, eyes still glued to the large tree... He'd wanted to climb some more, more, and more. And then he'd fallen. Maybe it was because he'd try to go too high. Caesar frowned._

_"No, that's enough playing for today. We have to patch you up."_

_Don't want to._

_"Can't always have your way, Caesar. Let's go."_

_Caesar didn't argue. His palm was starting to throb, and he didn't like the way the red liquid was coming out. It was sluggish and ugly. Hooting softly to himself, he wrapped his arms around Will and allowed himself to be carried away._

It hurt. He didn't know where. Pain seemed to have spread every which way, hot and burning. And he was cold all the same. Someone whose name he could not remember kicked him in the ribs, heavy and hard. But he couldn't even manage a groan.

"Break it up here."

It was a cold voice, as chilling as the ice around him. Caesar remembered hating that tone.

"Colonel, he's half dead. We were just finishing the job."

"And who gave you permission to 'finish the job'? I don't remember doing that."

"Colonel-"

"Not another word, lieutenant. I think you let this Donkey get to you. Is that right- was this  _your_  idea?"

The donkey's name was Red. He remembered. And Red kicked him again.

 _"Weak,"_  Red said, the word spat out.

"All of you, get out of my way. That's an order... And under no circumstances will you go behind my back again."

Arms picked him up, hidden behind fabric and stiff with muscle. They were human arms, strong like Will's. And this time, Caesar moaned.

_Will was warm and tender. He buried himself in Will's scent, the splinters hurting less now that Will was near._

"You're still alive, aren't you?" the voice asked, a little less cold this time.

 _Will set him down. He looked at the hand again, blue eyes lost in focus._   _Will's eyes weren't blue._

It was chuckling, cruelly, humorlessly. "Shit, they fucked you up." He heard steel cut steel, whatever binding his limbs now coming apart.

_Will cut away the wires around his wrists, the steel soaked with blood and fur. No. Will pulled out the splinters with tweezers. There was no wire._

His eye stung, a piece of cotton pressed to a swollen cut. He hadn't fallen on his face. He'd only scraped his hand.  _But Will continued to dab at his head, pushing a towel against its back. Caesar tried to touch the towel, and Will kept his hands away. Something was making noises behind them, strange moans he found noisy._

"Keep quiet or I'll let you die."

_He snuggled against Will, pressing himself against the man's gentle warmth. He crooned, expectantly waiting for Will to hug him back._

Will rubbed his head, fingers still at first. He was hesitating. And impatient, Caesar called for him, too weak to do anything save a soft groan. Will relaxed, giving in. His warm hand sank into the chimp's fur, tender as it massaged in- loving. He'd missed Will, missed him so much. And for a moment, Caesar forgot all else. Will was here, and he wanted nothing more than to lie in the man's embrace. He opened one eye, and saw Will's blue eyes looking down.

_Will's eyes weren't blue._

It all went dark.

* * *

McCullough smelled like shit. Shit, blood, and monkey. Biting his tongue, the Colonel unbuttoned his uniform, eager to shed himself of that wretched jacket. It fell in a clump. He stood by the fireplace, chucking more logs in while he was at it. The sweat gathered beneath his pits, pooling against the white undershirt. He eyed the jacket, itself covered in dried blood, before the gaze traveled to his hands. They were coated with red, dried layers over wet layers.

It was disgusting.

But he didn't wash it off. It was that chimp's blood anyway, and something about it made him burn in more ways than one. He'd thought about it many times- how Caesar and his kin were stronger, faster, better suited to this dying world. But who was bleeding now? It brought him a sense of ironic satisfaction.

Musing on this, the Colonel stuck a cigarette between his lips and lit it with ember. And for the first time in hours, he looked to where Caesar lay, buried in a pile of blankets on the floor. The ape's chest rose steadily, if a bit slow, and his eyes were shut tight. Every now and then, he'd shiver and groan, overcome with pain and fever. I showed you mercy, Caesar had once said.  _And look where your mercy got you now._

"I wonder," McCullough told deaf ears, "if you dream too. I really do."  _I live on nightmares. Do you?_

That body had been a tattered mess when he'd brought him in. There had been five lashes on his backside the last time McCullough looked; now there were twenty-five, each bleeding into the other, the fur and skin burned off around. Lacerations crossed into the abdomen, cutting deep as they snaked up the chest. They'd bound him with wire, and it had bitten down hard. Far too much blood had left his arms, and if McCullough had arrived a minute later, Caesar would have been another corpse.

His men had done this- the damage was too erratic, too calculated. But the other beating, that came from the donkey. There was a lot of rage- personal rage- from the ape, if McCullough had to guess. He'd turned half his former king's face into a swollen mess of purples and blues. Caesar's fur hid the rest of his wounds, but the odd shape of his rib cage was enough to tell the Colonel how many of its bones had been dented. And he'd wondered why there had been no wire on the legs until he found out why- the donkey had broken one. And he had still been beating the chimp when McCullough stayed his hand.

Preacher had been the one to find out.

"Colonel, you have to come now!" he'd shouted, perhaps shocked by the cruelty. The boy had seen a lot in his lifetime, but adrenaline-filled torture was new on the list. McCullough, however, had other concerns.

It had been  _his_  choice to keep that ape alive. If he'd wanted Caesar dead, the chimp would be dead. And he had no intention of martyring Caesar- no, breaking him was an example to the rest of those monkeys, and if he died in the process, that'd be his own weakness. And those upshot youths had taken matters into their own hands. The Colonel's word was law and they'd broken it.

He'd been furious, blood boiling to heights he never knew he had when Preacher lead him out.

Then he'd hauled Caesar up, thrust him into his grip, and walked on, blood soaking his uniform and trailing over snow. They had no right to argue with him. They had no right to act without him. He did not care about their personal vendettas, their unresolved issues, whatever misgivings they had with man or ape. He was the law.

He took another puff of the cigarette. Caesar had woken up while McCullough tended him, but the Colonel did not find humiliation nor rage in those eyes. He had seen-

The good eye was warm, filled with adoration and longing. And the chimp had craved his touch. He had responded to McCullough like a dying man in the desert. For that moment, he was completely, utterly dependent on Colonel J. McCullough. And the Colonel shuddered because that longing had awakened something within him, something intimate and wrong. He'd felt it before, when he'd seen Caesar broken down, weakened and forced to moan, but this was more. More than that inkling of a feeling, and now he knew it was not just a hint.

He pressed the blunt to the chimp's shoulder, above that patch of naked skin and right over what appeared to be a bullet scar. McCullough forced his thumb down, and the embers went out against Caesar's skin, leaving a small burn in its wake.

Because when all was said and done, Caesar was  _his_ , had been his since the night McCullough charged behind his curtain of water. Caesar was his to break and kill. And no one was allowed to touch what was his.

* * *

_Father, I missed you. Will smiled down at him, his handsome face lit by morning sun. The light streamed through the window, bright and hot. But he was so cold. Caesar reached for Will again, fingers closing around nothing as the man disappeared into a mix of blurs and snow._

_Will?_

Caesar awoke gasping, brow dusted with snow, and feeling as if he'd been mauled by a pack of wolves. The pain clung to him, doubling and tripling until he could not resist crying out. When his vision cleared, he again saw snow and grey skies, a morose landscape seen from behind the bars of a cage. Then it all came tumbling back at him- Red yanking him from the cross and the jeers of Alpha Omega's men. He remembered being shoved forward and forward again, pounded and outnumbered as they rained down. Goaded on- perhaps by Caesar's own words that he couldn't recollect- Red slammed a boulder over his leg.

He had a hard time recalling what happened next, besides a blizzard of pain and his body's pitiful want for respite. But he'd let the pain wash over anyway. It took away whatever else had been on his mind, and, guilty, he realized he had enjoyed those last few moments between life and death, when he had been deluded into thinking Will was back. For a grand few moments, he'd been safe and happy.

Someone had removed him from Red's hands, and he knew for a fact it was not Will. He had glimpsed this person several times in his fevered sleep, cried out for him, touched him. Longing blue eyes and an orange fire. A tender touch on his wounds. And the rest was a black canvas he could not fill.

Something bobbed above him. Caesar blinked (and it hurt), turning the eye he could open up. Lake's face was looking over him, blanched, weary, and tight with grief. He had been lying in her lap.

 _"You're alive,"_  she signed.

He nodded.

 _"Thought you died."_  She roamed a hand over his jaw.  _"You were hurt so bad."_

"What?" he asked, tongue a hundred pounds, voice a pitiful whisper, "happened?"

As she struggled to inform him, Caesar eyed his chest briefly, most of himself bound in bloodied gauze. A human had done this. When he looked to her again, Lake gave him a look of confusion.

_"The Colonel took you away. Thought he would kill you."_

Had his vision tricked him again? Lake could not have signed correctly. "The...  _Colonel?_ "

_"Yes. He brought you back at dawn. Saved you?"_

Saved him?  _The Colonel of all people_. Caesar frowned, mouth still filled with the taste of dried blood. "Why?"

_"I don't know."_

The Colonel had given him no inclination he preferred the chimp alive. On the contrary, he seemed determined to provide Caesar with a slow, humiliating death. But the man had more than enough chances to kill him, and some instinct told Caesar he wanted to keep this game going on. It was some feeling of instinctive hate, the primal need for the enemy's validation, the strange tingling fascination this resentment held. And as loathe as he was to admit it, Caesar felt the same.

Blue eyes. That had been the Colonel. And he'd thought it was Will. It made bile rise in his throat.

He was pulled from his thoughts by the sudden hooting of the cage. Lake hooted back. The other apes gathered around him in droves, as if shocked to the core that he had somehow survived. But their little hints of joy were buried under looks of fear and disappointment. Their leader had been bested, and he could not save them in this condition. Except flesh wounds had never stopped him before.

Hands shaking, the blood again seeping from where wire had cut, Caesar signed,  _"Do not fear. I will find a way."_

Perhaps they did not believe him. He didn't need them to. They wanted to. And that was enough. He smiled.

* * *

When McCullough arrived by the cage, his presence was immediately noted. The monkeys scattered when they saw him enter, flanked by that red donkey and a set of quiet soldiers. Their fear- or rather, resentment- was strong in the air, and he cut through it with every step of his boot. The place smelled of blood and waste, dampened only by the ice of snow. Behind dark shades, his eyes searched for who he had come to find.

Caesar found his glare and returned it. The chimp was in a female's arms, his shape still a mess of bruises and blood. But McCullough's handiwork shone through, his many layers of gauze still clinging tight. And ignoring the protective hoots of Caesar's apes, their numbers likely rallied by their leader's gaze, the Colonel walked past them regardless.

"Shut up!" the private cried, butting one away with his rifle.

The donkey roared at them, the group crying back, until at last the guards fired their guns. But it was all white noise to the Colonel- they posed no harm to him, he'd made sure of that. He loomed over Caesar, watching with some smugness as the chimp struggled to sit up. The pain was more than evident on his face, and McCullough could practically hear teeth gnashing as he bit back any sound of hurt.

"Who is she?" the Colonel asked, glancing briefly at the female before looking back.  _She saved your life once_. "You said your wife was dead." Then his lips twisted, a smirk in the making. "Unless you have more. How many?"

Caesar's gaze hardened, a feat McCullough had thought impossible. He forced himself up at last, unmoving between McCullough and the female.

"My daughter," he all but growled, "my  _son's_  wife."

It pleased the man to hear that, pleased him in a wrongful way. "Alright." He turned to the donkey. "Get him up."

The gorilla moved forward and stilled when Caesar snarled his way. Chest heaving, the chimp pushed his feet forward, one leg tied to a splint. He stopped himself from collapsing, and more impressive, managed to stand. He wobbled. When the female moved to help, he stayed her hand. Caesar looked to McCullough without a hint of acknowledgement at the donkey.  _Where to?_  he seemed to ask. But it was not a question. It was a challenge.

 _"He was remarkable,_ " that man had once said.

He had been right, this McCullough admitted. He had been right.

"Come with me," the Colonel told him. He glanced at the donkey. "And don't you try anything. You follow  _my_  orders, understand?"

The ape nodded. Beside him, Caesar began trudging, his limp more than pronounced, no doubt agony in each step. But he dragged himself past the gorilla anyway, satisfaction in his somehow proud gait. It almost made the Colonel grin.

* * *

The Colonel lead him back to where the cross had stood. Several more were stacked in its row. And upon them, Alpha Omega's own were strung up, their backs bare and their faces pressed against wood. Five men, tinged blue from frostbite and shaking with pain. Crusted wounds traveled down their spines, red and raw. Caesar's mouth went dry, no sound save a gulp in his throat.

One man moaned, eyes bloodshot as he struggled to look at the Colonel. But the other man paid him no mind. The Colonel picked up the crop left coiled in the snow, its length covered in slick blood.

"Keep quiet, Boyle," he said calmly, "you brought this on yourself."

Caesar felt himself stumble, the Colonel's tight arm all that stopped him from hitting the snow. And sensing the change in his breath, the man mused, "Now, don't tell me you feel bad for these bastards."

"Why?" was all the chimp could say. Was he disgusted? Horrified? Or as the Colonel said, maybe he did pity them. Or maybe even simpler- he did not like seeing others suffer, man or ape.

"They hurt you."

Before the chimp could answer, the Colonel went on: "Only I can hurt you. Are we clear, Kong?"

Something was tingling in the man's voice, something Caesar did not like, but it electrified him regardless. It struck him the same way that cold gaze had- not, the Colonel's eyes were never cold. They were on fire and they burned, and it was clear they would only burn _him_. Those eyes threatened to swallow.

"Let them go," Caesar hissed.

And he would not be swallowed. He backed away from the Colonel's grip, standing firm despite the spots dancing in his vision. He felt his blood again slip onto snow. But that hardly mattered in the face of his rage.

"Back to square one, then." The Colonel flicked the whip across Boyle's back, the soldier crying out. "I'll do you this favor. I'll let them go. But you, Caesar, owe me this."

"Do it."

The man regarded him with false amusement. Then he signaled for Red to cut the soldiers down. As expected, the gorilla did so with no tact or grace, and the injured men fell to the ground in screaming clumps.

"They won't thank you for this," the Colonel said, "they'll hate you, they'll blame you. And next time, I won't be there to stop them."

Caesar bit his tongue until he felt blood. He would not dignify the man's words with a reply- he was sick of the Colonel's taunts, sick of his burning gaze. The Colonel placed a hand on the back of his head, tender as he gingerly rubbed the dampened fur.

"But you're already falling apart," the man muttered, "you'll beg me to pick up the pieces."

And as quick as that hand had struck, it was gone. The Colonel pushed him forward, into Red's rough hands, and ordered, "String him back up. Don't be too rough, donkey... you don't want to end up like our friends."

Red was far from gentle, and Caesar had no doubt it took every ounce of the gorilla's self restraint not to rip off his bandages and beat him to dust then and there. Instead, Red only grunted, all but throwing Caesar onto the beams and lashing him down. Bits of hot blood splashed out, but Red did not care- he perhaps hoped to spill more. And the Colonel merely stood. And watched, face stony as he waited for the sound of Caesar's labored breaths.

"If you beg, I'll make it more bearable," the man said.

"No. You will not."

Caesar met his gaze again. The Colonel smiled. "You're right."

* * *

In the dead of night, Caesar felt himself crumple from the cross. But he did not hit the snow. He fell into a nest of warm fur. An orangutan's flat face looked into his when he awoke.

 _"All right?"_  Maurice asked.

_"Alive."_

_"Come. I'll carry you. Rocket needs us."_

_"I can walk."_

Something like a cross between exasperation and amusement flashed across Maurice's eyes.  _"No, you can't."_

There was no more arguing after that. Maurice did not allow it. His friend cradled him to a warm chest, and they disappeared into the shadows of the camp.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, and hope that was at least interesting for you! Comments/kudos are always welcome!
> 
> I don't know if this particular idea will be expanded on, but this probably won't be the last time I write for this terrible pair. A certain somebody opened pandora's box for all of us, and I'm all for it. (That said, I hope you enjoyed this fic, Squickqueen!)


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